Tatarstan orders three riverboats from Ak Bars Shipbuilding Corporation

Tatarstan orders three riverboats from Ak Bars Shipbuilding Corporation
Photo: Luiza Ignatyeva/realnoevremya.ru

The government of Tatarstan signed a contract with Ak Bars Shipbuilding Corporation to build two high-speed hydrofoil boats 03830 Meteor 2020 and one passenger boat А45-120 for 120 passengers for swimming in routes up to 600 km. Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov at a meeting of the Basin Council of the Lower Volga River Basin District on 23 September.

“We ordered two Meteors to go to Bolgar quickly and another boat for 120 people,” he said talking about the development of river tourism in Tatarstan. According to him, new riverboats built at the Gorky plant in Zelenodolsk will continue to be purchased.

It should be reminded in June 2022 the Zelenodolsk ship engineers launched the first hydrofoil boat Meteor 2020, which was built on request of Severrechflot river transport company from Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District. It is assessed at 400 million rubles.

Then, Tatarstan Minister of Transport and Road Farit Khanifov claimed that it was the turn of civil fleet and the modernisation of mooring infrastructure. The last boat was built in 2004, earlier, 12-13 hydrofoil boats used to be built, noted head of Ak Bars Shipbuilding Corporation Renat Mistakhov.

The first Meteor 2020 was produced at the Gorky plant in Zelenodolsk in early 2021. At that moment, the enterprise, which was a part of Ak Bars Shipbuilding Corporation, signed a contract with Severrechflot river transport company from Khanty-Mansiysk to build two high-speed passenger hydrofoil boats 03830 Meteor 2020 for a total of 1,25 billion rubles. Mashpromlizing was the leasing operator.

It is noteworthy that the 03830 Meteor 2020 was chosen the main model to build riverboats in the interests of the United Volga-Kama Shipping Company. Farit Khanifov said that the boat 95% consisted of Russian components, which allowed its serial production.

It should be reminded that the authorities of Ulyanovsk Oblast announced the intention to buy several Meteor boats from Nizhny Novgorod on leasing terms. These boats are supposed to use new river routes that will connect Kazan with Ulyanovsk and Samara.

Luiza Ignatyeva
Tatarstan